ABC's with the Schoney's: Adoption after Breast Cancer!

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Soy-Free Saturdays: First post!

For the most part, this blog has become about adoption (which I LOVE). But there are still health factors that are different in my life because of cancer, and if my research can help anyone else at all, I'd like to share what I've found.

To that end, welcome to the first post in the new series I'm going to be writing: Soy-Free Saturdays! Mostly, I'll be sharing where I've found some of my favorite, hard-to-find soy-free products. I'll also share some of my opinions about soy, and why I not only avoid it for myself, but also try to feed as little of it as possible to my family.

As a disclaimer, my oncologist told me to stay away from soy, with the exception of soy lecithin. So, while I always welcome opinions, I want to be upfront and say that I do not expect my opinion to change from what my oncologist has told me to do.

To add to the disclaimer, I am not a doctor, and not qualified to give medical advice. As such, these posts contain only my opinion, and information in them should be used with discretion, and as they fit with what your doctor tells you for your own health needs (There. I think that covers all the fine print requirements.).

I know that whether or not to use soy can be a hot topic, but I simply want to share my opinions, and even more, the products I've already found that are soy-free (except for the soy lecithin).

Soy is in so much of our food, that for anyone who is attempting to start eliminating or lessening the soy in their diet, it can be extremely overwhelming to do it all at once. I tried to do it, and spent a lot of time hungry, or just eating fruit, so I backed off and started eliminating soy little by little. I am still working at eliminating it completely, but have made huge strides in finding most of my favorite foods in a soy-free version.

So, here is my first product:

Tortillas!

Believe it or not, I spent a LONG time trying to find tortillas. I even tried making them at home. I've heard it's possible to make them at home, but I cannot begin to tell you how much time, flour, and other ingredients were completely wasted in my inedible attempts at home-made tortillas (ugh).

I even tried corn tortillas. They are not the same.

I'd checked the Target brand before, but I'd only checked Market Pantry, and one day, I decided to reach up to the top shelf and check the Archer Farms brand, fully expecting to be once again disappointed, and my to my delight, found they were soy-free!

I do try to stay with foods that have a shorter list of recognizable ingredients, but for now, I'm really happy to have soy-free, whole-wheat tortillas.

Do you have any favorite soy-free foods, or foods that you'd like to find a soy-free version? If I have found a source, I'll share it in a post, and if I haven't, maybe I can find one!